2 Corinthians 5:14-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
14 [a]For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.(A) 15 He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.(B)
16 Consequently,[b] from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.
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- 5:14–15 These verses echo 2 Cor 4:14 and resume the treatment of “life despite death” from 2 Cor 4:7–5:10.
- 5:16–17 Consequently: the death of Christ described in 2 Cor 5:14–15 produces a whole new order (2 Cor 5:17) and a new mode of perception (2 Cor 5:16). According to the flesh: the natural mode of perception, characterized as “fleshly,” is replaced by a mode of perception proper to the Spirit. Elsewhere Paul contrasts what Christ looks like according to the old criteria (weakness, powerlessness, folly, death) and according to the new (wisdom, power, life); cf. 2 Cor 5:15, 21; 1 Cor 1:17–3:3. Similarly, he describes the paradoxical nature of Christian existence, e.g., in 2 Cor 4:10–11, 14. A new creation: rabbis used this expression to describe the effect of the entrance of a proselyte or convert into Judaism or of the remission of sins on the Day of Atonement. The new order created in Christ is the new covenant (2 Cor 3:6).
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